BURLINGTON, Vt. (AP) – A pastor is trying to help a convicted sex offender move out of state.

Pete Fiske, who volunteers as a non-denominational Christian pastor in Vermont’s prisons, is raising money to send Douglas Bryant to another state where he would be free of the publicity that is making it so difficult to resume his life.

Bryant, 51, admitted in 1994 that he sexually assaulted a Burlington woman just hours after he was released from jail for kidnapping another woman.

He has a violent criminal record that dates back to when he was a teenager.

He served his full 10-year sentence, though he declined sex offender counseling, and was released in March.

Sherry Tenney of the Corrections Department testified Tuesday that her department called “motels, social welfare, landlords. We checked virtually everywhere” to find Bryant a home.

There were no takers. Bryant lived instead in a homeless camp in Burlington and has repeatedly been thrown back in jail for failing to comply with the state’s sex-offender registry requirements by establishing a verifiable address.

When Bryant was released in March, police warned the public because they felt he was a violent menace. Some Burlington businesses took to posting his photograph in their front windows to alert the public.

Fiske said Tuesday that Bryant’s conundrum showed no sign of easing. At best, Bryant would stay out of trouble but would be treated as an outcast and grow increasingly angry. At worse, he would commit more crimes.

Fiske, who retired from IBM in 1993 when he felt a call to the pulpit, said he is working with Christian ministries nationwide to find Bryant a new home. He has raised from private donors about half of the $1,500 Bryant would need for travel, and modest rent, clothing and food allowances.

Fiske said he has been involved twice with successful out-of-state prisoner moves. Wayne Delisle, who served five years in jail for second-degree murder in the strangulation death of Laurie Gonyo, 29, of Enosburg in 1976, is doing well in another state, Fiske said.

Daniel Emerson of Springfield, released this year after his third jail term for rape, has also moved out of Vermont and is working full-time and renting an apartment.